9/18/2003 @ 6:00PM

Before They Were Rich

Punk. Geek. Slacker. Those are labels that describe the appearance of some Forbes 400 members when they were photographed while still in school. Yearbook pictures of course are rarely flattering, but our photo montage of these tycoons-to-be may startle you:
Berkshire Hathaway
‘s
Warren
Buffett
Warren Buffett
looking callow in a fur coat as he cheers on Penn’s football team;
Microsoft
‘s
Bill
Gates
Bill Gates
looking like an extra in Dazed and Confused;
Dell
‘s
Michael
Dell
Michael Dell
looking a tad dorky even for a future tech entrepreneur.

Our friends at Classmates.com shared their archives, allowing us to show the world that Amazon.com’s
Jeff
Bezos
Jeff Bezos
once had a full head of hair, and that Yahoo’s
David
Filo
David Filo
used to favor white polo shirts that simply screamed “1980s prep.” Click on our slide show for startling portraits of now-familiar faces.